Choose your own destiny
by Pnulls
Summary: AU where Kelly traded a young Nicholas off to the Royals for her own freedom. Ten years late he's being sent to Portland to deal with a bastard Royal who's trying to build his own kingdom. Only the Royals didn't count on the fact that Nicholas has been plotting their downfall for a very long time, and finally finding a way to make his plans come true.
1. Chapter 1

When Nicholas first got the call, he felt the need to ignore it. Being a Grimm in the service of the royals were such a pain in the neck sometimes. Always having to be at the beck and call of those stuck up bastards were not his ideal way of living.

 _All thanks to you my ever-loving mother_ he thought with more than a dash of sarcasm.

If only his mother hadn't been caught up with them after the traffic accident that killed his father and surrogate aunt.

She had taken him with her right after she heard the news, and for a long time they had been on the run and they were managing quite fine – at least he thought so.

It would seem that there were more problems than he had thought, but then again – he was only a kid at the time and therefore he didn't really have all the insight into his mother's problems.

He still couldn't phantom why he couldn't just stay with his aunt Marie since it would have been so much easier for him – not to mention that he would have avoided the mess with the royals he was in right now.

A small part of him thought about the fact that his mother would have been dead if he wasn't with her at the time, but he just couldn't find it in him to care about that. Sure, she was his mother and he supposed he should feel kind of bad if she had died, but he just couldn't. After all she had traded him off for her own freedom. What kind of mother would that?

Thanks to her he had spent the last 10 years in the Royals' service being trained and perfecting his Grimm powers. At first, he had been so much against doing their bidding that he fought tooth and nails, screaming at them and refusing to do what they wanted. After more beatings that he could count he concluded that it would be easier to do what they wanted and plot for his escape and revenge in the privacy of his own mind. So that's what he did.

These past 10 years he took the training they provided him with. Struggled every part of the way to be better, stronger and fiercer than everyone else.

There was actually a part of that were pretty proud to confirm that he had reached his goal. He was better than them, he was stronger and he finally had complete control over his powers. He allowed a small smirk to grace his mouth at the thought. Oh, what he wouldn't do to be able to show them just how much more powerful he was now.

He only ever showed them a smidgen of his powers – _always be prepared for the worst. Never show them all the cards on your hand._ That was about the only useful thing his mother had thaught him, and that was the only advice he lived by now.

The phone kept ringing in the background. With a deep-felt sigh he pushed his companion for the night rather harshly with the result of the other man ending up on the floor.

The blonde male rose up and shot him a rather aggressive glare, but he couldn't find it in him to care.

"Listen," _Carl, Clement, Charles?_ "I've got an important phone call to take. Please see yourself out"

The blonde male furiously wrapped the bed sheet around himself, gathered his clothes up in one arm and stomped out of the room. _Please spare me the drama queen act_ he thought to himself with an eyeroll.

When the male was finally out of the room Nicholas rolled unto his stomach and reached across the bed for his phone on the nightstand.

"What?" he spat into the phone. He recognized the number as Viktor's and he didn't feel like dealing with the pompous git today.

"Nicholas my dear," He inserted another eyeroll here. Never has he been, or never will he be dear to the crown prince. "I need you in Portland, U.S. A royal Bastard has made the town his playground and he's trying to establish a parody of a kingdom over there. I will not stand for it any longer!" He could hear Viktor was on the way to a temper tantrum worthy of Royal toddler, so he was quick to interrupt him.

"Sure, I'll deal with it right away" He hung up the phone and thankfully couldn't make out any of the words Viktor was spluttering.

Before working with the royals – however unwillingly it was – he would have thought they had more class than this. But no. They were all just a bunch of spoiled asses getting upset at not getting their way.

He got out of bed groaning at the slight pain in his back. Even if he didn't remember the name of his partner last night, at least he got a good workout out of it. The blonde male might have been a severe piece of eye candy, but he wasn't that good of a lay. He gave a sigh as he made his way towards the bathroom in his suite. He had had to roll his partner over to ride him as the dumb fuck couldn't even find his prostate. Hmm, come to think about it, that might be why his thighs were hurting more than usual today. Oh well, nothing a hot shower couldn't fix.

After his shower he went about collecting all his weapons and he took great care with his crossbow and his favorite machete. They were always a hassle to get through the different airports, but he figured that since Victor had asked this service of him specifically, the private jet would be made available to him. A small text to the Royal's secretary confirmed this. She also confirmed that there would be a folder ready for him in the plane regarding his mission in the states.  
It had been so long since he was there, that he thought he might look up aunt Marie, just for shit and giggles. After all, it wasn't her fault that his bitch of a mother decided she would be a much better caretaker and haul a poor boy all around the world.

Once the plane had taken off Nicholas decided to entertain himself with the folder on his target.

Of course, he had heard about the Royal bastard of the late king Frederick. Well everyone had really. It was the worst kept secret of the court that the bastard lived in the states. However, it hadn't been a problem up until now. He had to let a chuckle escape at the thought of Victor feeling so insecure in his new position that he had to eradicate every living descendent of the king – even the bastards.

Inside the folder were all the information the court had on the bastard. _Sean Renard_ he thought to himself, _is a rather handsome bastard_. The picture showed a male with sharp aristocratic features and piercing green eyes. There were some newspaper clippings telling a story of how he became the police captain of Portland. The photos there showed a rather tall and well build man looking dashingly regal and like he would demand the attention of any room he entered.

Rather how a Royal should look, at least in his mind.

He spread the papers out unto the table in front of him and found himself studying the paper while leaning his elbows on his thighs and using one hand to stroke his lower lip.

He had to make plans regarding how he would pursue the bastard. _It might be fun to try out the seduction before attempting the ruthless way_ he thought to himself. _But then again. I don't know in which direction his taste lies._ He allowed himself a few moments of fantasies about that big strong body manhandling his own around a bedroom and found that he rather liked the thought. Of course, there was a note in the folder telling him that the bastard was half zauberbiest, and that put a damper on his seduction plans. The bastard would know he was a Grimm when he looked at him and therefore it wasn't an option to just play the innocent guy flirting with the police captain. _Hmm, well I guess I'm forced to confront him the ruthless way then._ Inside the folder were all the information the Royals had on Renard. His address, colleagues, even that one speeding ticket he had. It seems that the Royals had been keeping a rather close eye on Renard since he moved to the states.

Nicholas decided that he would visit the man at his workplace to be able to confront the man in a public setting. This would allow him to assess the man's powers in person without it coming to a fight.


	2. Chapter 2

Nicholas stood before the police station in Portland, looking at the building and using his senses to scout out the people, and wessen, inside the building.

He was astonished about the sheer amount of wessen working there, but figured it would do the captain good to surround himself with people that could handle the wessen related crimes. Nicholas figured there would be a lot of those in a place like Portland. The wessen community was actually the majority in the city.

He tilted his head slightly to the right to better listen in on the building. It would seem the captain's office was in the den with the other detectives. Rather unusual for a Royal to mingle with the peasants. The more he learned about this captain the more he found himself curious regaring what kind of person this bastard was.

He went to the receptionist asking for a meeting with the captain and using Viktor's name as a way to make sure he would get in right away. The human lady at the desk trembled slightly as she called up, and he found himself sighing over her fear. It's not like he would have anything to do with her. He might have a lot of lives on his consciousness but none of them were human. A fact he was rather definite about keeping true.

"Yes Sir, right away sir, I'll send him up right now sir." Funny how the receptionist wasn't the least bit afraid of speaking to the captain but her eyes showed a lot of fear when she was talking to him again.

"Ju-ust.. ehm.. go r-right that way sir" she said while pointing a shaking finger in the direction of the elevators. "Fourth floor sir" He sent her a smile he thought was rather docile and peaceful, but by the way she looked down at her computer again with a shudder he thought he might have to work more on the pleasantness.

Inside the elevator he was met with a bauerschwein and an eisbiber, whom a first glance didn't think much of him. He had learned to keep his Grimm side at bay for most of the time. There were still some times, particularly when he was stressed out or running on adrenalin, where he wasn't able to keep that side of him hidden.

The two wessen were starting to fidget a bit as the elevator slowly crawled its way up to the fourth floor. By the time they reached third floor both wessen were ready to storm out of the elevator, and happily did so before the doors were completely opened. They both turned to look at him in what they thought were the safety of the hallway, and he couldn't help but freak them out a bit. He let his Grimm side come forward in his eyes and both wessen started shrieking and tumbling backwards. Nicholas thought the poor eisbiber might have wet himself a little bit. A rather evil smirk graced his features and he waved his fingers on one hand at them while the door closed. It wasn't that he found joy in torturing the less brave wessen, it was just sometimes he couldn't help but be a product of his upbringing.

Both his mother and his "caretakers" with the Royals always believed that the wessen community should fear the Grimm.

Nicholas wasn't actually a follower of that specific mindset, he just pretended to be to better fit in with them.

Once upon a time he had stumbled across some old tomes in the castle's library describing how the partnership between the Royals and the Grimms used to be in the old days.

He rather liked the thought of their roles as protectors and caretakers to be much more up his alley. He could picture it, and had many times during his childhood, him standing beside a king or queen whom he could follow with good conscience, protecting the wessen of the kingdom and being the sole reason for the wessen to have a long and safe life.

This humbug he was doing for the Royals now was more in the part of an executioner, and he didn't like that role. Why should he kill someone without a proper reason to? Where was the justice in that ruling system?

The only reason he hadn't abandoned his post with the Royals was that he hadn't gotten complete control over his powers. Well, now he had, so maybe it was time to elope from their service.

Nicholas thought back to the pictures of the regal looking man Sean Renard was, and thought to himself that he might explore the possibility of removing his service from the European Royals to this man. He would have to give it more thought later on.

Now was the time to get this show on the road. He pulled forward his aura of darkness, fright and despair and cloaked himself with it. It was always better to be feared than seen as a weakling when dealing with Royals – even if they were bastards.

When the elevator dinged and the door opens he had his smirk firmly in place and looked out unto the precinct's desks and people.

Sean Renard was having a rather splendid day up until the call came from Sarah down at the reception. There was a somewhat scary looking man, according to her, waiting for him with a message from King Victor. He could feel the headache building behind his eyes. What would that idiot want now?

He had made the agreement with his late father that he wouldn't start an uprising against the European Royals as long as the king was alive. They had shaken on it and everything – like they were loyal and upstanding citizens. He almost snorted to himself. That wasn't two words he would use to describe him, or the rest of his father's family. He had to stop that thought before the headache evolved into a full-blown migraine. But now the King was dead and that disgracing piece of shit, Viktor was trying to rule over him too. Well it would be a cold day in hell before that happened. Now that his father was no longer in the picture he had every right to start his own kingdom here in Portland, and he intended to pursue that dream with everything he had.

He thought about the man his cousin sent to talk with him and let out a small sigh. He guessed it would be another reaper just like the two Viktor had sent before. Sean made good on that challenge and had sent the reaper's heads back to Viktor. He would have to scare this reaper off as well – he just hoped it could happen without having to behead anyone else. It really was a rather tiresome and messy way of dealing with threats, and besides, it was a bitch to get the blood of his beige trench coat.

Sean suddenly heard a lot of shrieking and a lot of running from the den outside his office, and he hurried to stand up and go investigate.

He ran to his office door and pulled it open with as much force as he could without tearing the door of its hinges.

As soon as the door opened he was hit with an aura so dark he hadn't ever felt anything like it.

Thank God for his selfcontrol or he might have shrieked and scrambles backwards as well.

Out from the elevator strolled a rather small and refined man. He was the one with the terrifying aura. He had a rather evil looking smirk on his face and strolled into the den like he owned the place.

As soon as the man's eyes met his own Sean had to fight back a woge. It would seem Viktor had stepped up the game and sent a Grimm.

A freaking Grimm in his city! Sean could feel his anger slowly overpowering the fright. The nerve of his cousin! Sending a Grimm could endanger the entire community in Portland.  
From what he knew of Grimms they were rather merciless, and not afraid to chop heads left and right. This was not something he would want for his wessen.

The man, still not breaking the eyecontact, opened his arms and exclaimed rather happily: "Sean Renard, so good to see you" His smile was both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. "Viktor sends his regards of course." The man did a small bow but still not breaking the eye contact. He actually looked like he was having a bit of fun with the whole situation. In the periphery of his sight he could see all his wessen employees scrambling out of the way. His human employees were not as quick to escape, but they still seemed to be able to feel the danger of this man and there was a lot of unease in them as well.

 _Oh God,_ Sean thought to himself. _A Grimm with an aura this potent, I wonder how powerful he really is._

Sean hadn't ever heard about a Grimm being able to affect a room as big as the precinct, so for this Grimm to be able to do just that he had to be _very_ powerful.

Sean put on his best 'I hate you but I have to be polite to you'-smile. "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage Mr.?", "Burkhardt" the man replied with an even wider smile that made Sean think about large predators. "But you're more than welcome to call me Nicholas, Mr. Renard. We will be seeing a lot of each other after all." And wasn't that a thought that sent a shiver down Sean's spine.

It wasn't until later, when Sean thought over the encounter with the Grimm, that he couldn't remember if the shiver was from fear or something else.


End file.
